Much like the 2008 ArenaCup Championship, the preseason coaches poll was decided by a single point. This time, however, it was Spokane who came out ahead. The Shock, last year’s ArenaCup runner-up, secured 336 of a possible 384 points to earn the No. 1 spot in the 2009 preseason Coaches Poll, the arenafootball2 (af2) league office announced today. Spokane edged out the defending ArenaCup Champion Tennessee Valley Vipers, who earned 335 points to rank No. 2 overall.
Although the Shock received more overall points, Tennessee Valley earned more first place votes, 10-8. The East Division Champion Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Pioneers enter 2009 as the No. 3-ranked team with 312 points, including five first place votes. The Tulsa Talons and Bossier-Shreveport BattleWings rounded out the top five with 307 and 238 points, respectively. The Talons also received two first place votes.
Each week during the season af2 coaches will vote for the Top 16 teams in the league by ranking them one through 16 on a ballot. Teams ranked first receive 16 points with the point value decreasing by one for each place below first, meaning a team ranked 16th would receive one point. Total points will determine the Top 16 list. In the event of a tie in total points, the team with the greater number of first-place votes will be ranked higher. The af2 Coaches Poll will be announced every Wednesday during the regular season. Coaches are not allowed to vote for their own team and the poll results have no bearing on postseason qualification.
The complete Top 16 is listed below. The number in parentheses indicates the number of first place votes the team received.
PRESEASON TOP 16 | |
RANK | TEAM | PTS |
1 | Spokane | 336 (8) |
2 | Tenn. Valley | 335 (10) |
3 | W-B/Scranton | 312 (5) |
4 | Tulsa | 307 (2) |
5 | Bossier-Shreveport | 238 |
6 | Arkansas | 211 |
7 | Green Bay | 189 |
8 | Manchester | 158 |
9 | Central Valley | 148 |
10 | Oklahoma City | 142 |
11 | Quad City | 126 |
12 | South Georgia | 103 |
13 | Boise | 85 |
14 | Milwaukee | 81 |
15 | Iowa | 78 |
16 | Kentucky | 72 |
